A wireless communication device and its serving base station communicate wirelessly to provide voice, Internet, email, text, video, and other communication services. The serving base station has a backhaul communication link with a communication service provider. When the base station provides a communication service to a wireless communication device, content requested by the device is first sent to the base station over the backhaul link. Once the base station has received the requested data, the base station transmits the data to the wireless communication device.
The communication service provider typically leases the backhaul links from backhaul providers like Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) or coaxial cable companies. Typical backhaul lease terms include a 1, 3, or 5 year pricing plan, monthly recurring costs, and penalties for early termination. As demand for wireless communication service shifts, the communication service provider may desire to remove underutilized backhaul links from the network. However, the service provider must consider the penalties incurred for prematurely terminating a backhaul link lease. In the past, service provider personnel have performed manual calculation steps using complicated tariff documents to determine whether terminating a specific link would result in a lower contractual cost than maintaining it unnecessarily. Unfortunately, these steps are time consuming, requiring manual tracking and tedious decision making points which often result in suboptimal disconnects.